


Nameless

by dbskyler



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Character Study, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-09-04
Packaged: 2019-07-06 16:16:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15889572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dbskyler/pseuds/dbskyler
Summary: "Even the word 'Doctor' is false. Your real name is hidden. It burns in the stars, in the Cascade of Medusa herself."





	Nameless

  
Hydrogen. Helium. Barbara Wright. Ian Chesterton.  
  
_He looked at her, and knew he would not let her die._  
  
* * *  
  
Lithium, beryllium. Jamie McCrimmon.  
  
_He'd always been a rebel, but now he would become a renegade._  
  
* * *  
  
Boron, carbon. Brigadier Alastair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart.  
  
_He stole her away, taking Susan with him. He couldn't leave Susan behind, alone._  
  
* * *  
  
Nitrogen. Josephine Grant.  
  
_He borrowed a TARDIS and set course for the Medusa Cascade._  
  
* * *  
  
Sarah Jane Smith. Oxygen.  
  
_He would harness the power of the rift, the rift he once closed._  
  
* * *  
  
Fluorine. Harry Sullivan.  
  
_She was comatose. Dreaming. Gently he put his fingers to her head and entered her familiar mind._  
  
* * *  
  
Neon, sodium. Leela.  
  
_He found her happiest memories and drew them forth. He wept when he saw how many of them involved him._  
  
* * *  
  
Magnesium, aluminium. Romanadvoratrelundar; Romana.  
  
_He allowed her to dream again, to wander through those memories now laid out before her as paths through a meadow._  
  
* * *  
  
Phosphorus, sulfur. Adric.  
  
_He let Susan say goodbye._  
  
* * *  
  
Chlorine, argon. Nyssa.  
  
_He did not tell her goodbye._  
  
* * *  
  
Potassium, calcium. Tegan Jovanka.  
  
_He enclosed her in a force field, and sealed her in a time loop._  
  
* * *  
  
Manganese, iron. Perpugilliam Brown.  
  
_He set her adrift, embraced by the energies of the Cascade._  
  
* * *  
  
Cobalt, nickel. Melanie Bush.  
  
_He removed her from space, from time. He hid her from those who would come looking. They would never find her._  
  
* * *  
  
Copper, zinc, selenium. Dorothy “Ace” McShane.  
  
_He locked her away, but he needed one thing more to protect her always. A key._  
  
* * *  
  
Rose Tyler. Gold.  
  
_The key had to be secret; safe. It had to be powerful, to draw on the elemental structure of the universe._  
  
_Nothing holds more power than a name._  
  
* * *  
  
Cadmium, indium. Captain Jack Harkness.  
  
_He would not use her own name. He couldn’t do that to Susan. He couldn’t take from her the knowledge of her mother’s name._  
  
_But he could take from her the knowledge of her grandfather’s name._  
  
* * *  
  
Tin, antimony, tellurium. Mickey Smith.  
  
_Using the TARDIS and the energies from the rift, he reached back and removed the thread of his name from time, replacing it with his chosen title for his more recent years and with his old nickname for his Academy days and childhood. He watched his timeline as conversations changed and flickered around him, until he remembered being rocked by his mother in his crib and heard her call him “Theta” as she sang him to sleep._  
  
_He remembered what she had really called him, too. But he was the only one who ever would._  
  
* * *  
  
Xenon, radon. Martha Jones.  
  
_They knew what he had done, of course. But they were helpless, because they no longer knew his name._  
  
* * *  
  
Donna Noble. Promethium.  
  
The fundamental laws of space and time can be described by numbers or by words, and both are equally true. At the quantum level the distinction is irrelevant. The right symbols in the right order in the right place and time can change the structure of the universe. Block transfer computation.  
  
To name a thing is to describe it utterly, to tap into the building blocks of existence. There is power in a name. He gave his up for her. He never told his name, not to any of those he met and traveled with later, not though they asked.  
  
He was nameless now.  
  
But he held their names close, and treasured them.  
  


* * *

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.  
  
This story archived at <http://www.whofic.com/viewstory.php?sid=24713>


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